A major Microsoft failure on Wednesday caused widespread disruptions to online services across the globe. Heathrow Airport, NatWest, and Minecraft were among the affected platforms, which went offline for several hours before engineers restored access later that evening. Millions of users experienced interruptions to banking, work, and entertainment services.
Thousands report failures across the internet
Downdetector received thousands of reports from users who could not access websites, send emails, or log into accounts. Pages froze, transactions failed, and online platforms became unresponsive across multiple countries.
Microsoft confirmed that users of Microsoft 365 suffered delays, particularly with Outlook. By 21:00 GMT, most affected websites were restored after engineers reversed a faulty update that caused the outages.
Azure cloud failure causes global ripple effects
Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, which supports a large portion of the internet, reported “service degradation” around 16:00 GMT. The company said the issue stemmed from “DNS problems,” the same fault that caused a major Amazon Web Services outage last week.
Amazon confirmed its systems remained fully operational during the incident.
In the UK, websites for Asda, M&S, and O2 went offline. In the US, Starbucks and Kroger websites also experienced outages.
Businesses scramble to maintain services
Microsoft said many corporate clients using Microsoft 365 were among those hardest hit. Some of its own web pages displayed an error message reading, “Uh oh! Something went wrong with the previous request.”
With its service status page offline, Microsoft posted live updates on X to keep users informed.
NatWest reported temporary website downtime but said mobile banking, chat, and phone services remained available.
Consumer watchdog calls for accountability
Which? urged companies to communicate clearly and compensate affected customers. “Customers should keep evidence of failed or delayed payments in case they need to make a claim,” said consumer law expert Lisa Webb. She advised anyone affected by missed bills to contact providers and request waivers for fees.
Scottish Parliament suspends business
The Scottish Parliament had to halt proceedings after its online voting system failed. Lawmakers postponed a debate on land reform legislation aimed at allowing government intervention in private land sales and breaking up large estates.
A senior parliamentary source said the outage appeared connected to Microsoft’s global system failure.
Experts warn reliance on few tech giants is risky
The full scale of the outage is unclear, though Microsoft Azure accounts for roughly 20% of the global cloud market. Microsoft said the incident was caused by “an inadvertent configuration change,” an internal adjustment that produced unexpected consequences.
Dr Saqib Kakvi from Royal Holloway University said the concentration of services in Microsoft, Amazon, and Google increases vulnerability. “When one provider fails, hundreds or thousands of services collapse,” he said. “The digital world relies on just a few giants.”
Digital infrastructure shown to be fragile
Professor Gregory Falco of Cornell University said the incident highlighted the fragility of modern cloud systems. “Azure and AWS appear as single platforms, but they are composed of thousands of interconnected parts,” he explained.
Falco noted that some components are managed by the providers while others rely on third parties such as CrowdStrike. Last year, a faulty update from CrowdStrike disrupted millions of Microsoft systems.
He warned that even a minor technical error can trigger global outages, showing how dependent the world has become on a few interconnected digital networks.
